X-O Manowar

Real Name: Aric Dacia the Visigoth

Identity/Class: Human technology user

Occupation: Warrior and CEO of Orb Industries

Affiliations: Solar

Enemies: Spider-Aliens

Known Relatives: Alaric (uncle, deceased), Diedre (wife, deceased), Rolf (father, deceased), Inga (mother, deceased)

Aliases: Aric of Dacia

Base of Operations: Orb Industries Headquarters, New York

First Appearance: X-O Manowar #1 (Valiant, February 1992)

Powers/Abilities: The Manowar armour grants a variety of abilities - enhanced strength and powerful blasters amongst them. It serves as a total life support unit, protecting the wearer from space, healing injuries, and even allowing the wearer to hibernate for hundreds of years without aging.

History: Aric Dacia was a Visigoth barbarian in the 5th Century. He was the nephew of Alaric, a great barbarian leader who eventually sacked Rome. He had a wife named Diedre, who was eventually killed during one of his sojourns into the past. He was abducted by Spider Aliens in A.D.408 to serve as both slave and food-source on an alien starship. But the starship on which he was a captive was attacked by Solar. Amidst the chaos, Aric stole the aliens' greatest weapon: the Manowar Class X-O Armor that he simply calls the "Good Skin". On Earth, 1600 years had passed while the alien ship traveled space at relitavistic speeds. Confused by the modern world, Aric found the sentient armor to be a very good guide. The armor taught him English and helped him adapt. Back on Earth Aric was befriended by Ken Clarkson, who sought the Armor for his Spider Alien masters. But Ken turned against the Spiders. His left arm was severed by alien laser-fire as he and Aric defeated the aliens and took the corporate empire of Orb Industries (which had been a dummy corporation for the Spider Aliens) away from them.

During the Unity conflict, Aric was nearly bitten in half by a bionisaur. Only the X-O Armor's healing abilities kept him from dying. From Unity, Aric was returned by Solar to A.D.408. But his superhuman power so terrified his fellow Visigoths that they united with their enemies, the Romans, in an unsuccessful attempt on Aric's life. Unwelcome in his own time, Aric hibernated in the Armor until the present. During this time, the X-O Armor evolved a different configuration and sprouted a Seed able to spawn another Manowar Armor. The Armor was called to the Spider moonbase by the aliens, who desired the X-O Seed. But Aric proved that even without the Armor, he could still beat the Spider Champion. With a mutual desire to eradicate the Spider Aliens, Aric and Solar destroyed the moonbase and the sixty thousand aliens within.

With no desire to return to his own time, and with the help of Ken (who helped run the day-to-day operations of Orb) and Randy Cartier (in charge of Orb's security), Aric began to accept the late 20th Century as his home. All of this was undone when a villain called Crescendo slew Randy and Ken, while destroying Orb. Aric then became a wanderer, both in space and on earth, before becoming partners for a time with a young thief named Gamin.

Aric is still out there somewhere. According to Rai # 0, Aric will rebuild Orb Industries and live into the mid 2060s thanks to the armor.

Comments: There is an X-O Manowar site here.

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

Back to US Independents Page

Home

All images and characters depicted on this site are copyright their respective holders, and are used for informational purposes only. No infringement is intended and copyrights remain at source.